For middle South Africa, it set the mind abuzz once again with possibility. In a time of national power cuts, a depleted rand and rampant incompetence with serial indifference, Noah’s news puts a bit more lekker back into local. With the dust now settled around an archive of tweets that ought to have offended fat, Jewish women everywhere, there appears to be a resignation that Trevor Noah is, indeed, to be the next Jon Stewart. Or is he?

Over the past 16 years, Stewart has built formidable traction, with some notoriety, as a tongue-in-cheek political and public commentator. The Daily Show, during Stewart’s tenure, became the second longest running show after South Park, with more primetime Emmy Awards than years on air. Enthralling a young audience that has yet to take life too seriously, Stewart actually became a primary news source for some. Perhaps this gives us some inkling into how America votes for the personality, rather than on the issues. As happens with all things media, the celebrity anchor heavily influences perception of the show. Does the brand reside with The Daily Show, or with Stewart?

Noah is no Stewart, nor should he be. His candidacy was well founded for two reasons. Firstly, his brand is not bigger than The Daily Show. He is not yet that imposing figure with towering comedic stature. Secondly, while certainly an intelligent social commentator with a comedian’s knack for irony, we would not expect of him to be the incisive aficionado on American politics that is Uncle Jon. The Daily Show has a growing multi-ethnic audience, not just in America and anglophile countries, but syndicated across the world to include the likes of Portugal, Denmark and India. Noah’s pitch is likely going to be much broader.

The writers may have their ideas, but the new boy will fare splendidly just by being himself: an interracial, multi-cultured pedigree who takes carefree aim at everything. There’s a little bit of everyone in Noah: the moral warrior, the closet bigot, the riotous demonstrator, the self-deprecating genius, the unwilling hero. Most importantly of all, however, he is non-denominational. Whomsoever he might delight or offend, it cannot be pinned down to an agenda.

But this is not all about Noah. While there is great South African affection for Noah’s newfound status on the international stage, his role is not ambassadorial. He might profess to being a "comedian from South Africa in the world", but he is now an employed entertainer of that world. The audience will expect to relate universally to The Daily Show through his broad life circumstance and exposure. Noah might know how to deflect his personal experiences for a good laugh, but his persona has an international street cred that lends gravitas to the guffawing and cackling he inspires. The Daily Show, with a sassy yet unassuming Noah as anchor, is set to rebrand with broader, more cosmopolitan appeal.

"The purpose of comedy," Noah enlightens, "is to make people laugh." In his case, it is also to drive ratings. No ratings, no laughs. It’s a funny business, show business.

About Blast Brand Catalysts

Established in 2001, Blast Brand Catalysts is a hybrid studio/agency that crosses the specialist disciplines of brand identity development and advertising. Design and advertising have dedicated skillsets and objectives. But working to a singular, longer-term strategic projection at the outset will factor market and media competitiveness as well as category differentiation. There is also an immediate, fluid transition from brand inception to activation.

Blast Brand Catalysts researches, strategises, designs, applies, implements, evolves and invigorates with proven, follow-through calibre. The tightly talented team gets it done, gets it done well, and gets the very next thing done even better.

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